Kal-El (New 42 Earth-1)
History Krypton: Beginnings and Ends Kal-El's father, Jor-El, was Krypton's greatest scientist, but he was also a diplomat. His best friend, General Zod, was leading an insurgency against Krypton's United Governments, and for a time Jor-El had supported them. However, it was not long until he betrayed Zod and alerted the government. After he had moved his wife and unborn son to a safehouse, he begin working on his research, attempting to find something that may convince Zod to give up his uprising. Jor-El got what he wished for. He'd discovered that the radioactivity that Krypton had been exposed to in the war was going straight to the planet's core. In exactly 32 days, Krypton would explode. He created a contingency plan to send his son, who Lora had named Kal-El, to a nearby Solar System, in specific, the planet known as Earth. After this plan was complete, Jor-El contacted the council. They refused to believe his findings, and Jor-El became an outcast. In the time it took Jor-El to contact Zod, Kal-El had been born. Lora begged Jor-El not to alert Zod, but it was too late. Jor-El quickly strapped Kal-El into his ship that would take him to Earth and prepared to face his friend. Unbeknownst to Lora, Jor-El had installed an AI copy of himself into the ship that would prepare Kal-El for his life. His son was sent off, and a second later Zod was bursting down his door. By then word had gotten out of Jor-El's insane predictions. Arrival on Earth Kal-El had not been around to witness Krypton's destruction or the death of his father at the hands of Zod. Approximately one and a half Earth months later, Kal-El crashed on the Earth. His ship was supposed to land somewhere in New York City, but an asteroid had set it off course, and it had landed in a small town, called Smallville Kansas. It wasn't long until the ship was found by Jonathan and Marian Kent. The two of them had longed for a child, although they were unaware that Marian was already pregnant. They took the baby in, unaware of where he came from, but they intended to find out. After naming him Clark, Jonathan examined the ship carefully, but he had no idea how to read Kryptonian. He kept it under wraps in his storm cellar, and the two of them tried not to think about it as they raised Clark. Growing Up and Power Development Clark had developed quickly. He was able to speak and walk by the time he was only 9 months old. By that time, it had been made clear that Marian was going to have a baby of her own. They named him Christopher, and as a child he always looked up to Clark. But as Clark got older, he realized that Christopher should choose a different role model. He didn't have any friends, he was terrible at sports, and he felt sick almost all the time. As each of them got older, Clark and Christopher would argue nearly all the time. They were very different. Clark wasn't very good at anything, but Christopher was one of the smartest kids in Kansas. Clark tried not to be bothered by it, but it was hard. He eventually found a friend in another social outcast, Lana Lang. He found it odd how hardly anyone liked her since she was the prettiest girl in the school, and she was very nice. In 8th Grade, Lana's popularity began to grow, but Clark was still a loser. It was around this time where he started noticing the changes. He often had to walk to and from school, but on one particularly sunny day, he felt like running. Eventually he realized he was running faster than he thought he could, faster than he thought anyone could. He was so amazed by this that he tripped. But he didn't hit the ground. He hovered in inch over it. He pushed himself up higher, and he was flying. He was more freaked out then interested, and he fell, making quite a large crack in the ground. He didn't tell his parents since he thought they might take him to the government, and he definitely didn't tell Christopher since he knew that he would just tell everyone. The Bus Clark had begun "practicing" with these new powers. Mostly he was just screwing around, trying to figure out everything he could do. He'd gotten over his fear of them, but he was still unsure as to why he could do these things, so he continued to keep it a secret. He wondered if he should tell Lana, but she hadn't talked to him for a while. So he decided to keep it to himself. A few weeks later, Clark was being bullied on the bus by a guy named Jake Suffridge. Everyone called him Jake Suffer behind his back, but no one knew. Clark thought the nick name was stupid. Eventually, he told Jake to back off and he pushed him into the side of the bus, which was a very bad idea. The force caused the entire bus to tip over. Another downside was that they were on a bridge and it was storming. The bus plunged into the lake below. Everyone was confident they were going to die. Everyone but Clark. He'd broken one of the windows and he swam outside. He was unsure if he was capable of surviving under water, but he didn't find it too hard. He quickly grabbed the bus and pushed it forward with all the strength that he could muster. Within seconds, they were on land, and everyone was marveling at what Clark had done. Answers are found in the Fortress After that day on the bus, more and more people had started noticing Clark. But Christopher tried to notice him less and less. Clark's parents constantly claimed that they had no idea how he could do the things he could do. Eventually, he became 18. His father took him into the storm cellar and showed him the ship. He said that Clark was an alien, and that when he was 8 years old, he'd gotten a video to play. It translated well into English, and the message the man gave was full of answers. The message gave Kal-El more questions than answers. He told his father that he had to find the Fortress of Solitude, he had to find out who he was. His father didn't argue with him. He said goodbye to his mother, and Christopher seemed happy that he was going. He didn't care. He was going to get answers and Christopher would no longer be a bother to him. The search was long, and far from easy. But after nearly two years of travel, Clark had found the Fortress of Solitude. At that point, he'd faked his identity so many times he was probably wanted under 5 different names. He didn't care. The only thing on his mind was getting more answers. The Fortress opened after it had scanned his DNA, and he was greeted by the robot helpers. This surprised him, but it was nothing compared to what was about to come. Mind Meld with "Jor-El" Clark reluctantly followed the robots, beginning to think that he may not want the answers after all. They brought him to the main room in the Fortress where an artificial intelligence was activated. It had the same appearance as the man in the message from the space ship. He told the robots to leave them, and after they were gone he introduced himself. He said his name was Jor-El, but he was merely a copy of his consciousness, and not Kal's real father. He apologized for not being able to be there in person, but he swore he would tell him everything. The artificial intelligence used the technology in the Fortress to combine thoughts with Clark, and it told him everything that he needed to know. He learned that Krypton was going to be destroyed by the radioactivity the core had been exposed to due to General Zod's war against the Kryptonian Council. Zod was a monster, willing to kill anyone who got in his way. Even his best friend. Zod had murdered Jor-El in cold blood simply because he disagreed with his actions. One day before the planet ended, Zod and his crew were captured and exiled to the Phantom Zone. After that, Krypton ceased to exist. Not a known single survivor. Only General Zod and his forces remained, and they were coming close to breaking out of the Phantom Zone. As for why Kal-El has powers, Jor-El explained that Krypton had a red sun, but Earth has a yellow sun. The yellow sun affects his biology, and makes him capable of doing things no Kryptonian had ever been known to do, nor any human. Kal-El also learned that the House of El was a line of heroes in their own rite. One of his ancestors had branded a suit that contained the family crest in the center, and it was located in the Fortress. Jor-El gave Kal as much time as he needed to let these newly learned facts sink in. When he was done, he located the costume and decided that he was going to put it to good use. He was going to honor his ancestors and become a hero. Superman's Public Debut The hero business had been very slow. Clark had decided to move to Metropolis, since one of his father's ancestors was one of its founding fathers. He hadn't been able to get a good start to his life as Clark Kent either. He'd saved a few people from muggings but it was all so fast no one ever noticed. Eventually, Clark had a good idea. He got a job as a reporter for the Daily Planet, where became partners with Jimmy Olsen, who Clark thought was a teenage dirt bag. Two weeks went by, and in that time Clark had befriended fellow reporter, Lois Lane. They had formed a friendly rivalry and Clark was beginning to develop a crush on her, but she was dating the Metropolis television news anchor, Snapper Carr. Eventually, Clark got his time to shine as a hero. He'd been running errands when he ventured across the Metropolis monorail, which seemed normal. But looks can be deceiving. His super hearing allowed him to discover that the monorail was out of control and it was moving much faster than it was supposed to, and it would soon crash into the station, killing everyone on board and possibly exploding. In nearly the blink of an eye, Clark got on his costume and stopped the monorail with little struggle. He then proceeded to push the monorail quietly back into the station, where he was hounded with people, one of them being Lois, who happened to be accompanied by Snapper. After being asked who he was, he almost panicked, but he looked at his chest and noticed that his family crest was almost identical to and "S", so he decided to call himself Superman. When Snapper called him a hero, he said he was just someone willing to do what needed to be done. He then flew up, saluted the people in the station, and flew away. That next day, Clark's report of Superman got the front page of the Daily Planet. 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